PITTSBURGH -- When the Pirates direly needed a win to snap a stretch of six losses, in came their most reliable starter this season.

After Pittsburgh’s bullpen had to cover 7 1/3 innings on Saturday, Tyler Anderson tossed seven shutout innings and allowed only three hits to the Brewers in the Pirates’ 2-0 win, avoiding a four-game sweep at the hands of the visitors at PNC Park on Sunday.

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“It was huge, especially after a night like last night, where our bullpen kind of got worn out a little bit,” Anderson said. “I’m just trying to go as many innings to give those guys a break as I can on this stretch right now.”

The key to Anderson’s day was aggressively locating his four-seamer and cutter high in the zone, drawing 10 combined whiffs and setting up weak contact lower in the zone.

Anderson’s only trouble came in the second inning, when he allowed a walk, single and hit by pitch with one out. However, his defense came up big, as Brewers pitcher Freddy Peralta bunted into a 3-2-4 double play that proved crucial to getting in the win column.

The clutch double play was one of a few defensive gems. Wilmer Difo made a diving snag on a hard-hit ball off the bat of Keston Hiura to prevent a leadoff baserunner in the same inning. Jared Oliva made a shoestring catch on Jackie Bradley Jr. in the seventh to prevent any late action in a tight game.

“I think when we win games, it’s because our defense is playing really well,” Anderson said. “It’s not because we go out and score 15 or 20, it’s because we may score three or four here and then our defense makes some really good plays all around the field.”

The only run Anderson needed to back him came from a hitter who needed a big hit to try to help kickstart a second-half surge after a first-half letdown. Kevin Newman swung on the first pitch he saw from Peralta in the first inning, batting in the No. 2 hole, and sent it a Statcast-estimated 356 feet to right field.

“That was more of just a reaction,” Newman said of the first-pitch swing. “That’s one of the things that I’ve been working on, just trusting myself and trusting my ability and just reacting instead of trying to make things happen.”

But on the run of offense the Pirates have been on, in which they’ve scored 10 runs in the past seven games, they needed a shutdown effort from their starter and a defense stepping up. They got it.

“We needed a clean game like this,” manager Derek Shelton said. “We needed an executed start like this, and he really did a nice job."